Yesteryear
by SCWLC
Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.
1. Kidnapped

Title: Yesteryear

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotline.

Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.

Rating: Call it PG for now.

Notes: This is gonna be short. The bunny's been bugging me, but I'm trying not to take on too many fics right now. That means that if someone, as I so frequently say, wants to try this out as a longer, more epic story, feel free. It'll be a few chapters, just . . . only a few dammit.

* * *

Lee woke at dawn, and as he did every morning, leaned over his wife to admire the way the first rays of sunlight fell over her dusky skin. Then he did the next thing on his schedule, which was one of his favourite things to do first thing in the morning, kiss her awake.

He had a method. First, he'd gently press his lips against hers in a small, chaste kiss. Usually that made her nose wrinkle adorably and the rest of her would wiggle a little as she burrowed back into sleep. Then he would kiss her a little more firmly, carefully slipping his tongue out to brush against her lips. This morning he was lucky and her mouth opened a crack, letting him kiss her more deeply right away.

Then he got to lean back, watching her blue eyes flutter open. "Morning," she yawned. He was about to start getting up when her slender arms slipped around his neck and pulled him back in for a very deep, very satisfying kiss. Eventually, however, they had to stop.

"As much as I want to stay right here," she told him regretfully, "You have to get to the dojo and I need to check on Pai. She's very close to her due date."

So another day started. They got dressed, Lee happily watching his beautiful wife put on her Water Tribe underwraps, which were just so tremendously exotic that he never tired of seeing them on her before she covered them up with proper clothes. He pulled on his clothing, scooping up the blades and heading for the dojo where he was the assistant, and likely to inherit from its current owner.

This day was just like any other, its share of small irritations and small triumphs. That boy Hui, probably his most average student, was just not getting the kata combination, while his worst student, Guo, had learned it on the first try. He crossed the street of their village to Yan's for a bowl of noodles at lunch when a startling sight came through the village.

After the war had ended and the Avatar had defeated Fire Lord Ozai, the new Fire Lord had been installed on the throne and had declared an end to the war, and had begun making reparations to the Earth Kingdom. So far, he seemed a just ruler, but Lee was still holding his breath on that to an extent. Particularly in relation to himself. He had been a raw, new recruit to the army, hopped up on Fire Nation propaganda when he first found himself on the front lines. Three weeks out there, and he'd decided that this war wasn't for him. He would fight to defend his country, but not to take over another.

So he deserted.

Now he was living in a small village, one that had accepted a firebender like him, with a job that made him happy and a lovely waterbending wife. He had no intention of going back to the Fire Nation. He had deserted and he didn't know how the consequences had played out since the change in administration. So rather than take the risk, he was just going to stay where he was and hopefully raise his children there.

But now there was a small contingent of Fire Nation soldiers walking down the street.

There had been an armistice, and there was no reason why anyone should be nervous about them, but old habits die hard, and besides that, no one could think of any reason for Fire Nation soldiers to be there, anyhow. Lee shifted a little on his stool, watching them carefully for any aggressive moves.

His own movement caught their attention, and one in the front nudged the man beside him, saying something too quietly to be heard by anyone else. Within moments, the whole group had come on point, like a pack of hunting animals, and that point was Lee. They all trooped over, and Lee, aware he was the centre of attention, got off the stool and moved out to the street where there was more open space to defend himself. "Hey!" said the one who seemed in charge.

He inclined his head a little. No reason to offend before it was necessary. "Afternoon," he said carefully.

"What's your name?" asked the soldier.

He took in a careful breath, but answered nonetheless. "Lee."

"Lee, huh?" said the man with a strangely friendly smile. "You should really come with us."

A sick feeling filled his gut. This was it. They'd come for an army deserter and he was going to be taken to the Fire Nation for some sort of sentencing. "I'd really rather not. I have a class waiting."

"Oh, they'll be happy enough to let you go," the man said, still smiling.

He smiled, rather faintly, back and said, "Maybe so, but I have an obligation. Now if you gentlemen will excuse me." He deliberately started walking toward the dojo.

One of them lunged at him, grabbing his arm and pulling him into the crowd of soldiers. Lee reacted on instinct and spun, using the combination of momentum to backhand his captor. The man let go and Lee tried to duck between them, failed to escape and drew his swords. The next few minutes were a blur as he tried to fight his way out. He was good, but there were too many and they were all carrying polearms. He blocked one spear, another, a quarterstaff but the next staff got through his guard, striking him across the shoulders and making him stumble.

Before he could recover, the next hit arrived, a strike across the back of the head. He didn't even feel the pain as everything went black. When he woke next, he was bound hand and foot and lying uncomfortably over the back of a war rhino, the ridge of its back digging uncomfortably into his stomach.

And the day had started so well, he thought wistfully. "Hey!" He shouted. "Where are you taking me?"

"Home," replied the man riding the rhino. "Where did you think?"

Rolling his eyes in aggravation, he replied. "If you hadn't noticed, my home is back in that village with-" he cut himself off before he mentioned his wife. Spirits only knew what would happen to her if they knew. "With my job and my friends," he hastily corrected.

"Well, you'll just have to get used to new friends and another life," the man said with a weirdly pleasant chuckle. "Don't you worry."

Deciding that this man was clearly unbalanced, Lee sighed and shut up, waiting for a chance to escape. The opportunity came when they stopped for the evening. They took him down off the rhino and untied him so he could relieve himself and eat something. The whole time he was under close watch. But after that, they tied him up, then left him to his own devices as they settled in to sleep. He was plonked into a well-appointed tent with comfortable pillows and a sleeping mat, but they seemed to feel the rope binding him was sufficient and didn't leave a guard on the tent.

When the sounds of movement had settled down, Lee reached down and carefully summoned his inner flame to burn his way out of the rope. It was a slow, careful business. He didn't want to set fire to the tent, or burn himself. It took a lot of focus to narrow the burning to one specific spot on the rope which he couldn't see, but he managed. Getting his feet undone was a lot easier. Then he crept to the tent flap, moving it open a crack to peer around the camp site.

Complacent about their prisoner, the men seemed to have all gone to sleep. Lee crept out, freezing every few steps to be sure no one had awakened. He was just sneaking past the last of the men when he saw his blades hanging from the saddle of one of the rhinos. It was dumb, he knew it then, but he wanted his swords back. They were his and they meant a lot to him. Carefully hushing the rhino, he cautiously undid the straps holding them on, pausing with every clink of metal and movement of the animal.

He would have made it fine if he'd either not stopped or if that stupid cat-owl hadn't shrieked. But it did and half the camp woke up to the sight of him taking his swords. The shriek had also startled the rhinos, who bucked and lowed and generally made a fuss that woke everyone who hadn't been sleeping before. Lee let the swords go and started off running, but the nearest soldier took him down with a flying tackle, and the rest piled on, immobilising him.

From then on, he was always under guard, and the rope was replaced with chains.

They continued on for another day. At the end of the day, he found himself staring into the loading bay of one of the Fire Nation airships. Half of the soldiers came on board, dragging him with them. They put a bag over his head and stuffed him into a corner, then refused to answer any of the questions asked by the ship's crew. He spent the next period of time – longer than a day, but less than a week – with the bag over his head all the time but when he was being allowed to eat.

Strangest of the whole experience was the pleasant chatter the kidnappers insisted on having. It was as though they thought he should be enjoying the experience and thinking of them positively. It was positively bizarre.

They landed and he found himself loaded into a covered cart. Finally they took the bag off. "Sorry about that," the soldier told him, still smiling. "But we didn't want to ruin the surprise for anyone."

"The . . . surprise?" Lee asked. This was the craziest thing that had ever happened to him and it was so strange he wouldn't have been all that shocked to discover it was an elaborate practical joke.

The other man, Lee refused to learn any of their names, nodded with a wide grin. "Yes. Everyone, the Fire Lord in particular, are going to be very surprised." He sat back, a smug look on his face. "I'm hoping to get a commendation out of this."

"Really?" Lee replied, unable to think of anything else he could possibly say to this.

They passed into the palace courtyard after a security check that involved them putting the bag back on his head. Then they dragged him out of the cart, and up some stairs, down one hallway, then another, until finally he was in a room that felt large, if the sound of voices echoing off the walls was any way to judge. He stood there, hearing the crackling sound of a fire.

His captors knelt, and Lee just stood there, awkwardly aware that he still had no idea what was going on. The one who'd been expecting a commendation for the kidnapping and return to the Fire Nation of a minor member of the army who had deserted spoke. "Your majesty," he said. "Me and my men are here because we've brought you something . . . someone you have been searching for."

From somewhere in front of them, Lee heard the man reply. "And who is this under the bag?"

One of the soldiers stood, yanking the bag over Lee's head. He blinked into the sudden change of light. He was in an enormous hall, lined with columns. To the front of the room was a dais which was partially hidden by the curtain of fire rising from the floor in front of it. He felt a little sick as he realised he truly was in the throne room and in front of the Fire Lord.

The curtain fell away suddenly revealing the man who held the throne now, after Ozai's defeat at the hands of the Avatar. Pale, the man stood, looking as though he was seeing a shocking sight. The flame crown glowed in the topknot on his head and the robes gave him an even more impressive aura than he had by his simple carriage and presence.

The moment was broken as the man suddenly gasped, smiled widely and ignored all convention and tradition as he rushed down the few steps of the dais, down the floor and up to Lee.

Dreading whatever was to come next, Lee raised his chin, determined that if he was going to die or be sentenced to execution or anything else, he would take it without cringing.

And then the other man grabbed him, pulling him into a hug, saying, "Nephew! Oh Zuko, you are safe!"

_Huh?_


	2. Arrival

Title: Yesteryear 2/?

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotline.

Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.

Rating: Call it PG for now.

Notes: And . . . this isn't answering any questions, really, but then it's not meant to. You may have guessed by now, but this is an AU. Oh yes, about Mai. I'm assuming that she and Zuko had a thing right before he was banished which they picked right up where they left off in the original series. So that thing is still a factor here, even though this is an AU.

* * *

Tara had woken to her husband as she had nearly every morning since they'd been married a year before. It was one of the things she loved most about him - his romantic streak.

After she was dressed, she left their house, feeding the turkey-ducks on her way through the yard. They'd come to the town of Huang-Ji to start afresh, with Lee absolutely determined to try being a farmer. She'd giggled at the very notion, since the only animals he knew how to handle were things they used in the Fire Nation army and turtle ducks. But they had to start somewhere and he was very determined.

That had lasted for about one month, after which she'd brought him to the dojo she'd scouted nearby and had him prove his skills to the elderly sifu who ran the school. Old Ori had informed Lee in no uncertain terms that he was to show up the next morning and to sell the pig-cows to someone by the time the week was up. Lee had grumbled to her the whole way home about her high-handed handling of the situation.

Then the pig-cow bit him for the fifth time that day and he thanked her and made her sell them at a loss to the Goushou family down the way. To this day it made her laugh out loud.

Her family had been of a small number of water tribesmen who had fled their polar home and formed a small community in the Earth Kingdom after one too many raids by Fire Nation soldiers determined to wipe out the waterbenders in the Southern Tribe. She was the eldest in her family, a waterbender who had been trained by her father in a hodgepodge of waterbending styles. The healing he'd taught her was the reason she now was the village healer and midwife.

She was also the only surviving member of her family. After all their efforts to escape the war, they had ironically died in a plague that had swept through their small corner of the world leaving Tara alone.

With Lee a deserter and disowned by his family, and her an orphan, they had been very determined to start their own family, especially now that the looming threat of war was gone. So they had been trying, very hard, to start a family. Not that that was any sort of hardship. Lee was wonderful and caring and absolutely the most gorgeous thing Tara had ever seen. He constantly reassured her that he thought she was beautiful, and he always made her feel that way. He had a hard time of it with that, because she often worried about her dark skin colour among a people who thought the paler the woman the more beautiful.

Once out of sight of the house that morning, she'd quickly hidden behind a small stand of trees and used her waterskin to check something she'd suspected for a while. Her monthly bleeding had been late and now it was a month past the time when she should have had it. Careful searching of her inner workings showed Tara that she was right. After all their trying, she and Lee were going to have a baby.

Happily, she went to her morning appointment with Pai, who took one look at her smiling face and congratulated her on the pregnancy. Then Pai had gone on to tell her every single pain and ache that she was suffering so that Tara could start dreading the swollen ankles, backaches, tender breasts, midnight cravings . . .

Pai's child was doing very well, was ready to come any day now, in fact. Tara warned her of that and made sure all was ready in her house for the baby before heading back to her own home. She had a romantic dinner to start preparing for when she told Lee the news.

It was a little after noon that she heard shouting from the village square, then Guo, one of Lee's students came running to the house. "Lee's been taken by Fire soldiers!" he shouted.

"What?" Tara gasped. "What happened?"

The boy told her all about the men who had come. How they'd walked into the village and taken one look at Lee and pretty much just attacked him and dragged him off. "They went down the western road," Guo said. "I think he was knocked out."

Tara wasn't even thinking as she shooed the boy out the door. She just collected all the travel things she'd hoped never to use again, stuffing them into the pack she'd hoped never to use for that purpose again. On her way towards the western road, she stopped at Pai's house.

Her friend was waiting for her. "You're crazy," Pai said bluntly. "But I know that won't stop you. Here's some bread and fruit. And have this silver as well."

"I can't take your money," Tara exclaimed. "I mean, I'm going, and I'm going to get Lee back, but . . . I'm leaving you right when you need me. How can you be so nice about it?"

Pai smiled. "We didn't even have a midwife until you and Lee arrived. Thanks to you, I know I'm well and my baby is well too. I'll be fine, and we can always send down the eastern road to Tanlen village for their healer." She pulled Tara into a hug. "You just go and get your husband back before you're as close to popping as me. You understand?"

"Thank you," Tara said. She piled her friend's gifts into her bag and marched down the road. As she travelled, she was soon able to pick up on the tracks of war rhinos in the dusty road. She knew she was far behind them, but they were taking Lee somewhere. And when they got to that somewhere, she'd be able to catch up.

It took her two days to reach the next village on that road. When she got there she discovered that the soldiers had loaded Lee into an airship and taken him to the Fire Nation. With no other choice, she continued her trip, making her way down to the nearest harbour town and paying her way onto a ship bound for the Fire Nation's capital. She'd find Lee and she'd fight her way back out of the Fire Nation if she had to.

* * *

Lee stood stock still in the Fire Lord's embrace. He wasn't sure what to think about any of it. After a few moments, the man pulled away, then looked Lee up and down. "Why is the prince chained?" he asked the soldiers in a dangerously calm voice.

While the rest of the soldiers rushed forward, undoing the chains and generally setting Lee to rights, the group's leader cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head. "Well . . . um . . . he didn't want to leave the village we found him in, so we . . . uh . . ."

"Kidnapped me?" Lee suggested, dryly.

Fire Lord Iroh raised an eyebrow and said, "Tell me, Nephew, what happened?"

Lee was just trying to figure out what was going on, but he obliged, because while so far the Fire Lord seemed a little dotty, he also seemed fairly good-natured. Perhaps he could still find a way to talk his way out of the mess. "I was taking a lunch break when they came through the village. I was on my way back to the dojo where I teach when they told me that I should come with them. I refused, they insisted and I told them I had obligations. I don't know who grabbed me, but we got into a fight and someone knocked me out. When I woke up, I was tied up on a rhino and on my way here."

The Fire Lord shot them men an angry look. "You attacked the Prince, effectively kidnapped him-"

Lee interrupted, "Not that I knew why they were taking me, or where."

Taking the interruption in stride, the Fire Lord continued, "Without informing him of your intentions and you are surprised he would try to escape?"

"He nearly did," admitted the now highly embarrassed leader.

"Stupid cat owl," groused Lee.

Lips thin with annoyance, the Fire Lord said, "While I am grateful at the return of my nephew, I am most outraged at the treatment he has suffered at your hands. Be thankful I am more merciful than my brother." He dismissed all the others in the hall, then pulled Lee into another hug.

With things now down to just him and the old man, Lee couldn't stand it any more. "Let go. Listen. I know you must miss the prince very much, but I'm not him."

"What?" the old man looked at him, confused. "Zuko, what do you mean?"

He sighed, exasperated and tired. "I mean, I'm not Prince Zuko. My name is Lee. I'll admit I'm glad I'm not here for what I thought I was here for, but please. Let me go home."

"If you are not the prince, then why do you look the same as he does, right down to the scar he bears from my brother's cruelty?" asked the Fire Lord.

Throwing his hands up in the air, Lee exclaimed, "I don't know! I didn't even know I had a scar like the prince's. There was a training accident when I first joined the army – my instructor was a self-centred jerk who managed to set my face on fire because he thought he had more fine control of his bending than he did."

"You even act like him," Fire Lord Iroh declared.

Rolling his eyes, Lee growled, "Well good for him. I'm _not_ the prince." He turned and started walking firmly toward the doors. As he reached them, he turned sharply, bowed deeply and said, "My privilege, Lord Iroh, for the time you have given me and the generosity you have shown."

"Guards!" snapped the Fire Lord. Instantly they were there, surrounding Lee.

"What are you doing?" demanded Lee.

The Fire Lord smiled, sadly. "That bow and those words were delivered perfectly," he said. "No common soldier could have delivered them so. I do not know why you have forgotten, Prince Zuko, but somewhere within you is my nephew. I intend to find out what has happened to you." He turned to the guards. "Take the prince to his rooms and leave a guard on him at all times. Do not allow him to escape."

For the second time, Lee found himself being dragged off by soldiers. The fact that he wound up in a palatial suite with silk sheets on the bed, its own tiled bathroom and gold leaf decorating every inch of the overly-red walls, furniture and other decorations didn't mean much. He was still a prisoner.

Quickly searching around the room, he soon discovered that there was a whole passel of guards outside the door to the hall, and within minutes of his arrival in the room, there were guards stationed under every window. Escaping was not going to be easy.

A short time later, the door opened to reveal the Fire Lord, accompanied by a man dressed in a red and white set of robes. "This is healer Luzen," he was informed by the man who thought he was Lee's uncle. "I have brought him here to see if there is a reason you cannot remember yourself."

Lee glared. "I don't remember being Zuko because I'm not Zuko. What's so hard about that?"

"If your highness will remove your clothes and allow me to examine you-" the man started.

"I will not!" snapped Lee, backing hastily away.

Iroh looked at him sadly. "I do not wish to treat you as I have had to treat your sister, Azula, Zuko. But if I must order the men to restrain you so that we may discover what has happened to you, then I will."

"_What_?"

Indeed, the Fire Lord did as he had threatened. Lee was a little proud that it took seven guards to subdue him, but that didn't overpower the humiliation of having a stranger look him over without his consent. Healer or no, he really didn't like strange men poking and prodding at him. The only healer he wanted was his wife.

Briefly he considered mentioning Tara to the old man. Perhaps if he played on his sympathies he'd be allowed to leave. But there was no telling how the man would react. What if he didn't want royal blood sullied by a peasant or some nonsense like that? He might send men to the village to execute Tara. After all, despite the fact that Lee was in no way the prince, the Fire Lord was still insisting he was.

Finally the ordeal was over and they all filed out of the room. He was barely alone for a few minutes when he had another visitor.

"Hello, Zuko," said the dark-haired young woman who had just breezed in past the guards.

He just glared. "Who are you supposed to be?" he asked sourly.

"Mai," she replied. "I was a friend of your sister's."

"That's nice," Lee told her, then firmly turned his back to her. He didn't want to hear any of this.

"Iroh told me you don't remember anything," she said. "So I guess you don't remember me, either."

"And I really don't want to either," he said. "Because then that would mean I wasn't who I am, and since I'm not Zuko, that's a good thing."

Suddenly she was right next to him, spinning him around and kissing him. He violently shoved her away. "What is wrong with you?" he demanded. Only the fear for Tara kept him from declaring himself a married man.

She looked as blank as when she had first come in, but he had the impression somehow that she was downcast. "I suppose you really don't remember me," she said. Then she turned and glided out the door.

Was everyone in this palace insane?


	3. Crowned

Title: Yesteryear 3/?

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotline.

Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.

Rating: Call it PG for now.

Notes: The story continues, but I don't really think the plot thickens. Well, for Lee and Tara it does, but . . . yeah, I'm dangling you all on a string with this.

* * *

The next week saw several escape attempts. The first time he just timed it for the changing of the guards under his bedroom window. As the two groups of guards were distracted – he'd noted the space was never actually unoccupied – Lee had vaulted out the window and just taken off at a dead run for the palace wall. He'd almost made it when an enterprising young guard had firebent himself into a tremendous leap and managed to catch Lee before he'd scaled the wall.

The number of guards under the windows and patrolling the grounds doubled.

His next try had been buttering up that Mai girl. That had been a terrible mistake, since his attempt to hold her hostage had resulted in some very debilitating injuries and a worry that he and Tara would never be able to have children. Doubly humiliating was that his so-called 'uncle' had come by to laugh at his expense.

That was also the last time he was allowed anywhere outside his suite, with anyone, without guards babysitting him.

After that, on a vaguely overheard statement from someone, he'd searched high and low in his room and discovered a secret passage leading out that only a firebender could gain access to. He was a little careless that time, following the passage and finding himself, not outside the grounds, on the grounds or somewhere feasible to escape from, but in the throne room.

"Ah! Zuko! You have rediscovered that passage!" the old man has said genially. "Join me!"

A couple of the guards he had hit rather hard in his efforts to escape sent him dark looks that made it quite clear he was going to join the Fire Lord in his audiences or they would make him pay.

That one was really aggravating.

As he was led by the nose from place to place in the palace, never left alone and always supervised by people trying to make him into this prince he wasn't, he noted the positions of various secret passages that seemed to take up more space in the palace than the palace proper. That led to one more attempt.

He was passing one passage, and some instinct, deep in his mind, told him that this was the way out. A secret passage that should lead to somewhere outside the grounds. Spinning around, he bent fire at his guards and dove for this new exit. The door opened and he ran, having slammed it closed behind him.

Some instinct led him to ignore this turn and follow that one, and he raced down the dank corridors. Eventually he found it, a door he just knew led to freedom. Indeed, it popped open and he realised that he was in someone's stables. Taking only minimal precautions as he ran, he bowled over a young girl dressed in pink with a long braid down her back.

"'Scuse me," he said as he ran past her, trying to make it to the docks.

He was taken by surprise when she leapt on his back like a monkey and he felt her knuckles dig into a few points there. Suddenly all four of his limbs just gave out and he fell to the ground. No matter how hard he tried, he was paralysed.

"Sorry, Zuko," said the girl. "But Iroh would never forgive me if I let you get away." She knelt down. "And also, what you did to Mai was really mean."

He stared. "Who _are_ you?" he asked. He'd never heard of anything like this. Was this girl some sort of elite secret Fire Nation police no one ever heard of because they were a secret or something?

"I'm Ty Lee," she told him with a smile. "Mai said you couldn't remember anything. I was a friend of your sister's before I ran off to the circus."

That was just too head-spinningly weird. "What the hell do they teach people there?" he asked as she grabbed his hands and started the extremely painful process of dragging him across the ground.

"Oh, tumbling, tightrope walking, you know, the usual."

Waiting for them were a small coterie of the now-constantly-irritated palace guards. They picked Lee up, tossed him into a palanquin and carried him right back up to the palace he'd just escaped. The Fire Lord was waiting in his private chambers. After he'd been placed none-too-gently into a chair, Ty Lee knuckled him a few more times and Lee was startled by the return of movement to his body again.

Fire Lord Iroh smiled at him, and said, "I see something of your memories has been retained."

"How do you figure," Lee asked tiredly.

"You were able to find that exit," Iroh told him. "When you were much younger I showed you around the secret passages in the palace. The only exit from the grounds connected to the door you took, you found unerringly." He smiled slightly. "I knew this, and was able to send Ty Lee ahead to stop you because of it."

Lee just closed his eyes. He didn't know how he'd known which way to go and he didn't care. He wanted to _go home_. If this kept up he was going to have to do something he didn't want to do, like attacking the Fire Lord. Not only did he not want to have the entirety of the Fire Nation out for his blood for attacking their monarch, but the nice old man who was just desperate and seeing things didn't deserve to be hurt just because he was a dotty and lonely old man looking for the boy he thought of as a son.

"You should head back to your rooms and rest," Iroh told him kindly. Lee took the hint and went to the door to leave. "Especially since later tonight is going to be a little exciting."

Looking up in dread, pausing between the guards that would babysit him on his way back. "Why is that?"

"I will be presenting you to the nation, of course," the old man told him brightly. "They deserve to know the Crown Prince has returned and will take the throne should anything happen to me. You will be publicly recrowned as such."

Lee's eyes were wide and panicky as he was led off.

He did, in fact, follow the Fire Lord's advice, lying down on the bed to wait. He must have fallen asleep, because he was roused, quite suddenly, by a woman in a servant's uniform. "Your highness, please get up," she said briskly when his eyes were open. "Your bath has been drawn."

He allowed himself to be shepherded into the bathroom where a steaming bath was waiting. It was when three maids started to divest him of his clothing that he snapped out of it and protested. "What are you doing?"

"My lord is going to have a bath," said the woman, rather sharply. "I don't expect that you will be having it in your clothes."

"And you think I don't know how to undress?" he asked, pulling away. The intent look in these women's' eyes rather scared him.

The one who had been speaking, and was clearly the leader, said, "I have no doubt you are capable, but it is our duty and pleasure to serve." She stepped forward, her eyes like steel as she said, "And you will allow us to do so."

This was a frightening woman. Before he could say anything, the three pounced, and no matter what he did (he wasn't going to attack them as he would a trained soldier) there always seemed to be three more hands somewhere, undoing his laces and buttons. Within very few minutes he was down to his drawers, and found himself efficiently manoeuvred into the bathtub.

The cleaning that followed was brisk, businesslike and _extremely_ thorough. The only women who had ever touched him that intimately before had been ones he had taken as lovers, and that was a list of two. One, a girl named Jin, the other had become his wife.

He was then pulled out of the bath by these forceful women who were nominally subordinates, but clearly nothing of the sort, and pulled out into the main bedroom where they plucked an outfit out of the closet and proceeded to stuff him into it like small girls playing dolls. His hair was pulled into the Fire Nation topknot he hadn't worn since he deserted and was far neater than he'd ever managed by himself. He was thrust onto a stool and his eyebrows were plucked into some fashionable shape, his hands were dunked in hot water, sanded with something then rinsed and dunked in some strange oil concoction that smelt of herbs.

Various arcane things were done to his face, hair and clothing. When he was done, they presented him with a full-length mirror and he stared. There was a stranger in front of him. Someone with money and blue blood, who could afford servants to dress him in the finest silks money could buy.

"Thank you?" he tried. They were just doing their highly intrusive jobs. Maybe they'd be punished if he didn't come out looking like a girly nobleman.

One after another, the three bowed deeply. "You are welcome, Your Highness," said the leader. "My name is Lian. This is Misu and Niza. We will be your attendants from now on."

"From now on?" he asked, gaping. "I thought this was just about the . . . presentation . . . thing."

"Oh, no," said Lian with a wicked look in her eyes. "The Fire Lord had asked us to wait until you were better used to life in the palace before dressing you to your station." She smiled, and it looked like a shark kraken. "We have been waiting since you arrived in those . . . clothes," she told him, her nose wrinkling slightly in disgust at his perfectly serviceable Earth Kingdom clothing.

_My wife made those,_ was on the tip of his tongue. He swallowed the words. He still didn't know what would happen if they found that the so-called prince was married to a waterbender of no particular family. "Does this mean you're going to do this . . .?" he wasn't even sure how to ask.

"We will be waking, bathing and dressing Your Highness every day," she said with another sharklike smile. "Until Your Highness finds a servant he prefers better."

Then she and her minions were out the door and he was being led down the hall by more guards who dropped him off at a balcony. Lee was shoved through a curtain and found himself staring down at the gathered masses of the city. The Fire Lord was beside him, smiling in amusement. "Lian and her assistants are quite an experience, are they not, Prince Zuko?"

"Uh-huh," he said faintly. He was still getting over the scrubbing he'd gotten all over. For a moment, the thought flashed through his mind of Tara doing the same thing for him, and he had to beat back the combined feelings of want and homesickness. He wanted her there so badly.

He wanted to have never gotten up that morning that was two weeks ago now? He couldn't be sure any more. If only they'd just stayed in bed all that day, none of this would have happened. Old Ori would have smacked him about the head and neck for laziness, but that would be preferable to this madness.

"People of the Fire Nation!" Iroh had begun a speech while he was lost in rumination. "I bring you wonderful news! The long-missing Crown Prince Zuko has been found and returned to us!"

The people gathered in front of the palace cheered so loudly, Lee wondered if they could be heard on the other islands.

"He now stands beside me, ready to take up the mantle of the royal family once more!" Iroh leaned back and said as softly as possible with all the cheering, "Get up here."

Dazed, unsure, Lee did as he was told. He'd already denied being the prince a million times. If he did so now, there was no telling the consequences.

Iroh gestured and a servant carrying the flame crown of the prince stepped forward and handed it to the Fire Lord. "With deepest joy, I give you," Lee was turned to face the crowds and felt the cold metal of the comb sliding into his hair. "Crown Prince Zuko!"

The crowd exploded in cheers and Lee was left wondering when it was his life had gone so wrong.

* * *

Tara had spent the night at a small inn on the docks, planning to start looking for Lee in the morning. She already knew the airship was supposed to have landed in the capital, so her first step was to find out where Lee had been taken after that landing.

She was halfway to the airship landing area the next day when she was swept up in an enthusiastic shouting crowd. Listening to the talk, it soon became clear that the Fire Lord had some sort of general announcement to make to the city. Unable to get away, the people were packed together like fish in a shipping barrel, Tara found herself forced into a spot with a prime view of the balcony from which the Fire Lord was going to make an appearance.

After a very long time standing in the hot sun in hot weather surrounded by people who were blocking her in so that it felt even hotter than that, the curtain at the balcony finally shifted aside, revealing the Fire Lord. Tara was quite surprised at the sight. She didn't know what she'd expected Fire Lord Iroh to look like, but someone's kindly, portly, grey-haired grandfather wasn't it.

He stood for a long time, smiling beneficently at the cheering crowd. At first, she wondered a little sardonically how long he was going to milk things. But after the crowd became so unruly that some guards were forced to shout warnings about calming down, she realised he was just waiting them out a little. The enthusiasm was both unsettling and comforting. Unsettling, because she had never imagined anyone having that level of devotion to their leaders, comforting because it meant the people thought well of him.

Finally, the curtain shifted again, and a figure appeared, hanging back in the shadows of the balcony. Fire Lord Iroh smiled, raising his hands and shouting, "People of the Fire Nation! I bring you wonderful news! The long-missing Crown Prince Zuko has been found and returned to us!"

The cheering reached another crescendo, and Tara frowned a little in thought. There was a crown prince? He'd been missing? A vague recollection of a wanted poster flashed through her memory.

"He now stands beside me, ready to take up the mantle of the royal family once more!" She saw the Fire Lord lean back, saying something to the dark figure, apparently the prince. As the figure stepped into the light, she gasped. It was Lee. Lee was up there, and . . . he was the prince? She felt a flash of indignation that he hadn't told her, when she suddenly saw his face. He didn't look like a prince come home. He looked confused and, although she knew he would never admit it, frightened.

He stood, stone-faced beside the Fire Lord, who said, "With deepest joy, I give you . . ." Then he nudged Lee forward, and stood behind him, taking something that glittered gold in the sunlight from a previously invisible servant and placing it in Lee's hair, finished, "Crown Prince Zuko!"

The crowd erupted one last time in a furore that lasted for so long, Tara lost track of the time. At least she wasn't going to have to find Lee. She knew where he was now. All that was left was figuring out how to get into the palace and to him.

Finally the mess broke up and she slipped through the crowds, trying to get close to the palace and at least start figuring out a way in. Standing near the gates, trying to look inconspicuous, she overheard a woman saying, "All I know is that Fong girl had better hope I don't catch up with her. Thanks to her leaving with no notice whatsoever, we're shorthanded on the upper-level servants and I don't know where I'm going to find a replacement on such short notice. Especially with the prince now in residence, I have a lot less play with reassigning people."

As if to lend credence to her words and the position of the person she was addressing, the woman passed through the gates with a familiar greeting to the two guards who stood sentry.

Well, that _was _a bit of luck. She'd take it.


	4. Coming Together

Title: Yesteryear 4/?

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotline.

Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.

Rating: Call it PG for now.

Notes: Not that I've explained anything yet, really, but we'll call it forward plot movement, right?

* * *

The next morning, Lee was startled awake by Lian and her minions. It was only by dint of throwing a childlike fit that he managed to get them to leave him alone for even part of his bath, and even then, she came swooping in _just_ after he'd finished the delicate bits to finish him off.

Then, refusing him any more than the barest modicum of privacy, he was dragged out to a table where he received another sanding, this time of both his feet and hands, had a massage that was rather more brisk than relaxing, and was again stuffed into clothes that made him feel like some sort of peacock elk, all display feathers and antlers. She bustled him out the door and into the waiting arms of the guards, who led him down to the dining room where the Fire Lord was waiting.

He received another shock to the system as he walked in, as there were a bunch of people his own age in the room, dressed not in finery, but in a variety of types of normal clothes. There was one younger girl dressed in Earth Kingdom clothes that were quite finely made, if practical. Another Earth Kingdom girl, this one just about Lee's age in solidly made warrior's clothes, who was talking intensely with a young man of the Water Tribes.

The sight of the dark skin and blue eyes sparked another flash of longing for his wife, and the resemblance made him wonder if the young man were perhaps a cousin to his orphaned Tara.

Also there was a boy, dressed in unusual clothes of oranges and yellows, who was playing with some sort of flying monkey thing. More oddly, the boy had no hair and arrow-shaped tattoos on his head and hands. The Fire Lord was grinning happily at the small group and looked up as Lee walked in. "Ah! Prince Zuko! Do join us. I had extended an invitation to the Avatar, Aang," here the tattooed boy bowed in acknowledgement, then spoiled his dignity by waving cheerily. "And his friends, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, Suki, of the Kyoshi Warriors and Miss Toph Bei Fong of the Gaoling Bei Fong family."

Each of them nodded to him, and Lee was left wondering what this new thing was intended to accomplish.

"So Iroh," said Sokka. "Why did you want us here?" Then he jerked his head at Lee. "Any particular reason you needed to introduce us to Zuko? He chased us long enough to know who we are, anyhow."

Oh, it was something to do with _that_ again. Lee stomped into the room, once again in high dudgeon, saying, "Not this again. You've already made it impossible for me to go home, Fire Lord. Why you insist on telling people I'm your nephew I don't know. I'm not Zuko and I never have been."

The Avatar was suddenly leaning far over, in Lee's face and said, "Well, if you're not that's a pretty amazing coincidence." He poked at Lee's scar. "I can't imagine too many people have a scar just like that."

Lee batted his hand away irritably. "Stop that! I'm not a zoo animal, I teach fighting at a dojo in the Earth Kingdom and I'd really like to get back to that instead of sitting in this stupid palace with strange women who insist on watching me bathe."

"Really?" said Sokka perking up. "That's-"

"A lot less appealing than you'd think," he said dryly, having a good idea what the other man was thinking.

"Yes, honey," said the Kyoshi Warrior woman, Suki wasn't it? "I'm pretty sure that would be _very_ unappealing." She fixed Sokka with a Look. "I know _I'd_ find it unappealing to have you alone in a room with a bunch of women watching you bathe."

"Yes, dear," said Sokka.

He had to ask though. "Zuko chased you?"

"Yeah," Aang told him. "You were banished by Ozai because you didn't want to send troops out to die for no reason. It was when you got that scar," he blithely narrated the story, unaware of the discomfort Lee felt at this reference to someone he wasn't. "Anyhow, he said you could only come home if you brought him the Avatar. So you chased me everywhere. Until you just vanished that time in Ba Sing Se."

"Ba Sing Se," he repeated slowly.

"Yes," said the Avatar, cheerfully. Seemingly unaware of Lee's surprise at the mention of the city. Then he suddenly seemed to become a little downcast. "A good friend of mine vanished in there as well. We're still trying to find out what happened there."

"I'm sorry," Lee replied automatically. He was already distracted by his own memories of Ba Sing Se. He'd wound up in hiding there after fleeing his army unit and it was where he'd met Tara. Could it be . . .

_No_. He told himself firmly. _If you were the prince, you'd know. Where would this many fake memories come from anyhow?_

The rest of breakfast was taken up in reminiscences of times he didn't remember, and a series of hopeful looks by the Fire Lord. When it was time to leave, he was about to let his guard-nursemaids lead him back to his suite, when the Fire Lord told him, "Today you will spend your day with me. You must learn the administration of the country, Prince Zuko."

Taking a deep breath and resigning himself to being even further wedged into the place of the prince, Lee got up and followed the old man out to his office where he spent a surprisingly not completely dull morning learning about distribution of resources, politic means of putting off requests for funding and various initiatives to better the nation.

Then came lunch and another stretch of semi-boredom, this time as the Fire Lord went to a series of meetings and audiences with various people and Lee got to watch him do what he'd been doing all morning as he wrote letters to various officials, only this time face to face. In between each meeting, the Fire Lord would deconstruct everything he'd done so that Lee could follow his reasons for this or that action.

Dinner followed and the return of the Avatar and his friends. At the end of the meal, Sokka asked if he could spar with Lee. "Aang said you were the best with these two swords," he said. "I wanted to see how good you really are."

For a moment, he thought to refuse. If he brought out his dao blades he'd be giving in to this delusion that he was the prince.

But he really wanted a fight.

Tara always said he was too impulsive. "Just because the blades are my weapons doesn't mean I'm the prince," he protested. The logic was weak even to him.

They were soon settled into the sparring arena and Lee found himself relaxing for the first time since he'd been kidnapped. All that mattered was the thrust, parry and counterthrust of the spar. He felt a grin on his lips as he spun and had to hastily change his tactics to keep this Water tribesman from disarming him.

The Kyoshi woman asked for the chance to fight him next, and those wickedly sharp, bladed fans of hers lost him two battles out of three. "I'll want a rematch," he told her, breathing hard and grinning from the joy of the challenge.

She smirked. "Oh? You're that desperate to lose?"

"You're that willing to bet I can't beat you more than one time out of three?" he asked back in the same tone.

"I wanna try!" exclaimed the Avatar.

Lee whipped around. "What?"

The Avatar shrugged. "You've made it obvious you're a firebender, and since we were both trained by your uncle-"

"He's not my uncle because I'm not the prince," interrupted Lee, his good mood shot. Then a question occurred to him. "How did you wind up being trained by the Fire Lord anyhow?"

Shrugging a little, the Avatar said, "Azula had captured Sokka in Ba Sing Se and he came with me and Toph to rescue him. Then he came with us when we left the city. I still needed to learn firebending and he hadn't found any trace of y-" He cut himself off, and said, "Zuko. So . . ." he shrugged again. Lee was grateful for that small concession to his feelings on the issue.

"If you're so determined that you're not the prince," asked the girl Toph, "Why haven't you left yet?"

He glared at her, sourly. "I tried. Agni knows, I tried. The Fire Lord now has me tailed by guards everywhere and a dozen guards under the windows. I'm willing to be he has every single secret exit to the palace being watched as well. I can't escape."

"Ah," she said, and sat back in satisfaction.

"Ah? That's it?" he asked her.

She shot him a grin. "Well, I was worried you'd just been sitting here and whining the whole time. If you actually tried, then I can respect that." Toph raised an eyebrow at him. "The real question is, are you still trying?"

Was he, he wondered. Which was when a new plan came to him. It would take a little longer, but if he played along enough, maybe he could get the old man to ease up on the guards. When that happened, he'd try running again. "Yes," he told her.

"And you're not lying, either," she said in satisfaction. "I like you princey."

"I'm not the prince," he told her sharply.

"Never said you were."

He blinked at her, confused. "That's just how Toph tells people she likes them," Aang explained. "You get a nickname. Or she hits you."

"Or both," Sokka said irritably.

Aang suddenly bounced on the balls of his feet. "So, can we spar?" he asked.

The break had been enough, and it had been a while since he'd been able to spar with another bender. The last one was his wife. He nodded. "Okay."

They went out into the arena, and Sokka counted them in. "Okay. Three . . . Two . . . One!"

Fighting the airbender was like getting into a fight with a leaf blown on the wind. While the boy was firebending, he seemed to have no centre, no root. No matter how he tried to strike at the other, his opponent just wasn't there. At least at first. Eventually, however, he started to pick the pattern out of the Avatar's movements.

When the boy tried a flame strike, he was finally able to retaliate as he caught the flames that hurtled towards him, spinning them around and returning them, doubled to trip up his opponent. A whirling motion of his hands and two discs of flame spun between them, forcing the Avatar into one place. Before he could follow up on his attack, he had to duck out of the way of a highly aggressive series of kicks, but blocked the last of them with a wall of flame roaring up, seemingly out of the ground.

In the end he lost, but it was very close. "Where did you learn how to return the fire like that?" asked the Avatar eagerly.

"You mean the uh . . ." he vaguely demonstrated the movement.

Nodding eagerly, the Avatar said, "That looks like a waterbending move."

Lee nodded. "It is I . . ." he almost mentioned Tara. He couldn't. He had to keep her safe because he still didn't know how these people would take the Water Tribe woman and her supposed prince. "I knew a waterbender once. I learned a few things."

The Avatar shot him a look. "You're not helping your case that you're not Zuko, you know," he said. "Iroh learned how to redirect lightning by watching waterbenders."

When his guards showed up, the whole exchange had so rattled Lee that he didn't even send them his usual look of aggravation. Walking through the halls, he nearly walked into one of the guards when he thought he saw Tara standing in a room with an open door they passed. He shook his head. He had to focus. They were all just getting to him and he had to find a way to bide his time without doubting who he was.

In any event, he was pretty sure that he'd never get to stay married to Tara if he decided he was going to pretend to be the prince. All alone she was worth giving up the luxury. When he walked into his room to be faced with Lian and her dreadful assistants, he realised he had a lot of reasons to get out of there.

This time they ignored his hissy fit.

He needed more strategies than just the one to get out of there, it seemed.

* * *

Tara presented herself at the servant's gate the next morning, asking to speak with the woman in charge of hiring the palace maid staff. She breathed a small sigh of relief it was the same woman she'd seen grousing the day before.

"You do realise this is quite irregular," the woman told her crisply. "I have not posted any advertisements for staff, nor have I asked anyone for recommendations."

Tara quickly bowed. "I realise that. However, I must admit to overhearing you yesterday, as you spoke of requiring new household staff," she said. "I worked as a ladies' maid in Ba Sing Se for a year, and I only stopped when I married." It was the truth. She'd been working as a ladies' maid when she met Lee. Her mistress had been having an illicit meeting with a handsome groomsman in the lower ring, and she had been brought along to lie to the master that she and the mistress had been shopping in the middle ring.

While the woman had gotten up to whatever they'd been getting up to in the cheap inn, Tara had gone out to find some ribbons and other trinkets to prove the truth of the trip. She'd run into Lee, who had gotten himself into a fight with some idiot with strange hooked swords and his two flunkies. She'd used her waterbending to help him and they'd driven the lot off.

Lee had insisted on escorting her back to the inn, and on every trip around the lower ring with her mistress after that. He'd also followed her back up to the upper ring many times, risking his safety to slip past the guards again and again while he brought her flowers and was just generally the most romantic man she'd ever met.

After all that courtship, they'd both decided they wanted out of the overly segregated city, and had left, searching for a new life. Tara shook her head a little to focus. Now wasn't the time to lose herself in the memory of Lee. She had to get this job.

The woman raised a sceptical eyebrow. "And where is your husband now?"

"Missing. I . . . I haven't seen him in a long time," Tara said, letting all the worry she'd suffered come out in her voice. "He . . ." she searched for a feasible excuse, faking grief as the cause of her pause. "He was a fisherman, and we think his ship was lost in a storm." Tara shrugged. "There was no way for me to make a living in my old village and I'm an orphan with no family to return to."

Lian nodded. "So you came here to find work."

"Yes." Tara was quite grateful the woman seemed willing to accept her story.

With a sharp nod, Lian told her, "Very well. I shall give you a trial. If you do well, I will hire you on permanently. If you do poorly, you're on your own again."

With that, Tara was given a rapid tour, and was set as the servant for a visiting dignitary who was going to be there the one night only. She firmly set herself to the task of caring for Lord Pitan. After all, she wouldn't have any chance at getting around the palace freely to find Lee if she got herself fired the first day.

Things had settled into a fair routine after only a few days, and Lian seemed pleased with her work. So was a little startled to be woken one morning by an agitated Lian. "Hurry up. Both my assistants have become ill this morning, and you seem the best qualified." With no explanation she was hurried into her uniform, given her toilet items and was whisked up the stairs to a particularly ornate section of the palace.

Staring at the door while Lian rapped sharply on it to announce their presence, Tara wondered if she was to assist with the morning preparations of the Fire Lord himself. Preparing herself for the worst, she followed Lian into what seemed an empty suite.

Lian hissed in annoyance about men who should know their place in the scheme of things before leading Tara to the bathroom. Standing half in and half out of the enormous tub of steaming water, was her husband. "I see you are trying to get out of having our assistance," Lian said in some exasperation and scooped up a cloth, looking expectantly at Lee.

Tara couldn't stop the squeak of surprise that escaped her.


	5. The Best of Intentions

Title: Yesteryear 5/?

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotline.

Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.

Rating: Call it PG for now.

Notes: I'll bet at least some of you saw this coming.

* * *

Lee was actually lucky he was straddling the lip of the bath when he saw Tara. If he'd been able to leap at her, pull her against him and kiss him, he would have. It would have blown her cover and he wouldn't be able to pretend she wasn't his wife.

Lian said sharply to her, "Can I trust you to be professional?"

"Yes, Lian," Tara said submissively. "I was . . . surprised, is all." With her usual surprising strength, Lee was effectively manhandled the rest of the way in and Lian started in with the washing he'd been hoping to avoid. "Hurry up," she snapped at Tara.

His wife, lips twitching almost imperceptibly, picked up a cloth and joined Lian at her task. She smirked at him, the little wench, and he felt her fingers around the edges of the cloth, lightly stroking. She knew what that did to him. "Enough!"

"Your highness?" Lian leaned back. Tara followed suit. Had he finally hit the right tone of voice?

He glared at them both. "I have no need of help with bathing, but if you are going to insist on it, I would rather your newest minion be the one to do it. She's a lot less . . . brusque than you are," he said, deliberately insinuating that she'd been hurting him.

Lian looked positively offended, but it seemed he'd finally won a battle without a hissy fit. "Very well, your highness." She shot a highly suspicious look at Tara. "I expect you to behave professionally." Then she swept out and Lee was alone with his wife for the first time in longer than he cared to imagine.

So he did the first thing that came to mind and kissed her. "I missed you," he murmured against her lips when they'd finished that first kiss.

"I was so worried," she told him, running her hands through his hair. "When they said they'd taken you, I thought . . . you deserted and . . ." She trailed off and kissed him again.

"Shh. I did too," he admitted. "And then the soldier started all this crazy talk like that I should be grateful he'd kidnapped me. They dragged me in front of the Fire Lord who just . . . decided I was Prince Zuko."

Tara seemed to sigh with relief. "I thought you might have been lying to me about-"

"No!" he snapped. "I have never lied to you about anything in my life."

"Except how you were a farm boy growing up."

"Except that," he acknowledged easily. He'd lied when they first met because a sword-carrying Fire Nation bouncer was a little too intimidating to land a pretty Water Tribe girl. So he'd lied about it. She still teased him about his attempts at handling the turkey-ducks at the market in Ba Sing Se. "So you followed me here?"

"I want you back," she said. "Can I safely assume you've been having some trouble getting out?" As they talked, she picked up the cloth and absently rubbed at his chest.

"Yes, and can you stop that? It's very distracting," he told her. "Unless you want to join me?" he added hopefully.

Tara gave him a regretful smile. "I wish I could, but you know we'd wind up soaking this uniform and then I'd get it for lack of professional behaviour."

"We'll work out a plan," he told her. "I'm going to demand that you be my personal servant."

Lian had returned, apparently deciding that they'd taken enough time. "Very well," she said disapprovingly.

"You see?" Lee said. "At least she doesn't seem to disapprove of me on the same fundamental level you do. Really, it's very unpleasant."

He and Tara didn't have another chance to talk as Lian insisted on finishing their toilet duties that morning. Lee also silently swore he would get back at Tara, who had insisted on slipping little teasing caresses into the process all that morning, causing him to be in a highly distracted state by the time he was massaged, sanded, oiled, plucked and dressed.

He spent the day, much as he had spent the last couple days, learning about administering to the Fire Nation's business and eating with the Fire Lord and the Avatar and friends. In between those times, he craned his neck about constantly, hoping to catch a glimpse of Tara. That evening, she showed up alone, where previously he'd been stuck with Lian and her sidekicks.

The moment the door was fully closed behind her, he was across the room, pulling her into an enthusiastic embrace. "Tara!"

"Shh," she said reprovingly. "The guards are still out there." Nonetheless, she melted against him and kissed him back. Lee had his hands in her hair and all of it pulled out of the bun she'd had it in within seconds. At last he could lose himself in her for a while.

"You smell so good," he muttered as he kissed down the side of her neck. "I could just stand here and sniff you all day."

She giggled. "You're very romantic, but you're also very weird," she told him.

"I don't care." He reached for the ties at the back of her uniform and felt her reluctantly pull away.

"We don't have time for that," she said. "I want to, but you have to get to bed, and I have to stay above reproach down below. I have a plan."

He immediately pulled away, and sat on a chair. She joined him. "What's the plan?" he asked.

"I'll steal you a guard's uniform. Then all we have to do is get you out of your rooms and into it-"

"I think I can manage to get away somewhere to meet you," he said, and showed her the secret passage leading out of his rooms. "I'll figure out where these lead besides the throne room and then?"

She smiled. "You'll be my brand new guard boyfriend. We'll head out the servant's entrance, sneaking off my shift a little early to go on a date."

"I love you. You know that?" he told her, pulling her off her chair and into his lap where he could kiss her.

"Then it's a good thing I love you too," his wife told him.

He actually did need help getting out of the elaborate robes, so she did that, and then they had to part for the evening. As he watched her walk out the door, Lee wanted very badly to tell her the hell with it and make her stay. But their escape rested on them having the self-control not to give themselves away.

* * *

The next day started off so well. Tara had the chance to figure out a good source in the laundry for the non-armour bulk of the guard uniform she'd need to steal and she was able to be up early enough to kiss Lee awake. She now understood why he did it every morning, because watching him wake up to her kissing him was an amazing feeling.

She still preferred to be the one sleeping who was getting kissed, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Not only that, in the chaos of a royal visit, she was able to scout places to hide her soon-to-be purloined items and get around to all kinds of places in the palace she hadn't been able to go to due to where her normal duties took her. This included the rooms where the Avatar and his friends had been staying.

Lee had told her all about them. The boy Avatar with his tattoos and flying lemur, the two Earth Kingdom girls and the Water Tribe man whose name he said was Sokka. Tara particularly wanted to see him. It had been so long since her family had died in the plague and she hadn't seen a Water tribesman since. Constantly surrounded by such pale-skinned people, she sometimes felt like she was the only one of her kind in the world.

Quietly peeking around corners, she caught a glimpse, first of the Avatar, then of the Kyoshi Warrior.

"Aren't they strange," whispered Uza, a friend she'd made among the maids. "I hear the Kyoshi woman fights with _fans_."

"Fans?" Tara asked, eyes wide. "How do you fight with _fans_?"

They scrambled off together, giggling and speculating about it. They almost got caught when they passed the Water tribesman. Tara had stopped to get a good look at him from behind a large decorative urn in the hallway. His hair had been pulled into a ponytail and the sides of his head were shaved. He was wearing some sort of lighter woven blue clothing that made Tara a little homesick for her own proper clothes. "He's very handsome," hissed Uza, "But we've got to go before Lian catches us up here!"

It was the last trip into that part of the palace that did it, however. Tara had been sent up to freshen the sheets in the earthbending girl's rooms because as Lian said, "She gets dirt on everything and we are going to keep that room clean even if I have to change and wash the sheets every hour on the hour."

Tara had just finished bundling the sheets together and putting on the fresh ones when the blind girl came into the room. "Excuse me," Tara said. "I was just finished."

"I knew it!" shouted the earthbender.

Tara stared blankly at her. "Knew what?" she asked.

"I knew I'd felt you around here, Sugar Queen!"

"I don't know what you think you know," Tara said tartly, "But I'm just a maidservant and I have work to do." She tried to sweep past the girl, but the earthbender moved with alacrity and tripped her. "What was that for?"

"You're coming with me," she was told and found her wrist in a grip that might as well have been iron for all the give in the girl's hand.

"What?" Tara gasped, but she was already being towed out the door and down the hall. Soon she was in the throne room, facing the Avatar, his friends, Lee, the Fire Lord himself, King Kuei and his guards.

"Katara!" shouted the Water tribesman. He and the Avatar ran across the space between them and hugged her. "You're okay! Where have you been?" He didn't wait for an answer just hugged her again. The Avatar wrapped himself around her from behind and Katara wondered if this was how Lee had been feeling lately.

The earthbender spoke up. "I found her playing at being a maid. You'd better not say you knew anything about this, Iroh."

"I promise you, young Toph, I had not the faintest notion Master Katara was in this palace."

Tara finally managed to extract herself from the clinging arms. "Okay, I don't know what any of you are talking about."

The Avatar stared. "Another one. This isn't coincidence." He turned to Kuei. "I know you're here to acknowledge the return of the Crown Prince to the Fire Nation, but Zuko doesn't remember who he is, and now, it seems, neither does Katara. They both went missing while they were in Ba Sing Se."

King Kuei nodded. "I will send word back at once to begin an investigation . . ." he trailed off, his eyes narrowing a little as he looked at one of his guards. He opened his mouth to speak when suddenly the man flung himself to the floor in between the two monarchs.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know who they were! Please don't execute me!"

"Yasha?" chorused Tara and Lee. What was the kind Dai Li officer who'd helped them leave Ba Sing Se talking about?


	6. Resolutions

Title: Yesteryear 6/6

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotline.

Summary: Things aren't always what they seem, but some things transcend appearances.

Rating: Call it PG for now.

Notes: The grand finale folks. Glad to have had you along, and I promise I'm going back to Airbender's Child to start Book Two starting right after I finish posting this.

* * *

Aang's eyes were wide as he exclaimed, "So the Dai Li got to you! They took away your memories like Jet and the Joo Dees!"

"I don't know who Jet is," Yasha piped up, "But the Joo Dees are completely different from what was done with these two."

Kuei spoke up. "I'm sorry, but perhaps we need to hear this explanation from the beginning."

That prompted everyone to resettle into more comfortable positions, except for Yasha who, at a dark look from Iroh, went back to kneeling in abject terror. Once everyone was waiting attentively, he explained. "You see, there are different kinds of troublemakers and so there were different ways of handling them," he started.

"Logical enough," commented Kuei.

Sokka shot him a dark look, then said, "So you brainwashed different people differently?"

"Exactly," said Yasha. "Some people didn't even need to be brainwashed. Simple intimidation worked in a lot of cases." He shook his head a little. "But other people needed more persuasion to . . . fit in."

"Right," Toph said dryly. "Well, he's telling the truth."

"That is what concerns me," said Iroh.

Yasha looked around nervously, then continued. "So some people you just needed to make them forget some thing or other. A small . . . adjustment."

"Like forgetting that he had been fighting the Fire Nation ever since his home village was destroyed by Fire Nation troops?" asked Sokka.

Yasha sighed. "That's a little more extreme. That was the kind of thing handled by more skilled teams. But essentially, yes."

"It takes more skill to do that, than to make a prince think he's a common soldier?" Sokka asked incredulously. "Or some girl to think she's got someone else's name and a creepy-happy personality?"

"The Joo Dees didn't require any skill at all," protested Yasha. "I didn't like doing them, but Hong and I had a template for them."

Aang looked horrified. "You did that to a lot of women?"

Yasha bowed his head in shame. "Either I did them, or I'd be sent to someone else for brainwashing and they'd still be done."

"Truth," commented Toph.

"So what about Katara," Sokka demanded. "And Zuko," he added as an afterthought.

Looking around for some sympathy, Yasha didn't find any in anyone. He sighed. "Some people are just going to cause trouble," he explained finally. "Even if you take away the things they've seen that would make them do troublesome things, they'll continue to speak out and look into things. You can turn them into Joo Dees or Jon Doos, but if they have families or friends who might notice, well . . ."

"So what did you do!" Sokka snapped.

"You blank the slate," Yasha said miserably. "Then you tell them they want to leave Ba Sing Se and never come back. After that, you . . . you give them a small outline and tell them to fill in the blanks themselves, in effect."

They all stared. "I . . . I . . . made up that my whole family died in a plague and I was alone _myself_?" Tara demanded.

"Hong simply told you to come up with the most feasible reason you would never try to contact any of your family or friends ever again," protested Yasha.

"So Princess Azula asked that you deal with Prince Zuko in this manner," said Iroh thoughtfully. "That does not sound like her."

Yasha winced. "I had my orders and . . . they were in the holding area of the Catacombs where we kept people for exit processing," he said. "I heard a while later that someone had ruined some plan of the princess' but I didn't think it had anything to do with me. She only worked with the upper echelons of the Dai Li, you know."

Kuei stared at the man who had been one of his personal guards. "You're saying that this . . . brainwashing of Prince Zuko and Master Katara was an . . . an administrative error?"

"I . . . think?" Yasha said.

Hesitantly, as though she wished otherwise, Toph said, "He's telling the truth."

Sokka made a sort of sputtering burbling noise. "I hear ya," Aang replied to it, eyes wide.

"How do we fix it?" inquired the Fire Lord with forced calm. "Can we find your colleague Hong to undo the work you had done to my nephew and Master Katara?"

Apparently, with the request for something he _could_ do, Yasha's tension eased. "Oh, you might never be able to find Hong," he said. "He left for Omashu when the war ended. Something about how King Bumi's administration would be more accepting of his lifestyle. He's written a few letters since, but all I know is that he's selling pornographic scrolls and changed his name to Lady Ling. It's okay!" he added hastily when even Iroh was beginning to look inches from throttling the life from him. "There's a failsafe phrase. If ever an error was made, or we had to correct our work, the phrase would undo everything and restore their memories of their previous lives." He smiled eagerly at the glowering group.

After a pause, Sokka said, "And? Say the stupid phrase!"

"Oh! Right!" Yasha said.

Something closely resembling a growl came from both Toph and Sokka's throats.

"Chartreuse pentapus shoes."

"What?" came simultaneously from five mouths.

Somewhat abashed, Yasha said, "Well, it had to be something they wouldn't hear in normal conversation."

* * *

Katara wasn't really paying attention after the words had released her memory. For a moment, the two competing sets of memories fought for dominance in her head. The deaths of her younger siblings and both parents trying to take precedence over Sokka, her dad and her gran-gran. She remembered finding Aang and how they'd wound up in Ba Sing Se, and she recalled heading to Ba Sing Se for a fresh start and an escape from the memories of so many burials at sea.

She also recalled being captured by Azula and tossed into the catacombs with Zuko, how he seemed to have changed so much, possibly even into someone she could be friends with. At the same time were the memories of several months of courting, romantic words and flowers and the agreement that they both wanted to get away from the segregation of the city.

Then the memories of being dragged off by a couple of Dai Li. She'd been taken into a room and earthbended into a stone chair. Zuko was brought in shortly after and his anxious face was the last thing she saw before the lights were put out and the lamp began spinning around. The last thing she'd heard before everything went blurry was him threatening and the sound of him trying to get to her.

When she'd woken up, they'd been curled up together in a small space in the outermost wall of Ba Sing Se. They'd both been a little fuzzy, but talking had . . . focused their memories of courtship and his proposal. It was like they'd been almost . . . compelled to do it.

She admitted sourly to herself that they probably had.

* * *

Zuko had zoned out after the pentapods because all the conflicted feelings he'd been having since being brought to the palace resolved themselves. He knew for sure now, that his reluctance to attack his uncle had been because he loved the old man like a father, not because he really would have felt any compunction about attacking someone keeping him prisoner against his will.

All his memories of being raised on the outer islands and the propaganda he'd grown up with, fused and changed with his real memories. Unlike Katara, who would never have agreed to abandon her family and would never have thought they would turn their backs on her, he had had all too easy a time believing it. He'd only had to change a few small details of his previous life, and it had been quite easy to believe he was a deserter, rejected by his family.

He remembered being in the catacombs and the argument with Katara. He recalled being dragged off and furious because she'd been willing to try healing his scar and his sister was interfering with something he'd wanted almost as much as to go home. Particularly impressive, besides the fact that she was willing to forgive and make peace with her enemies, was the way Katara had almost spit fire as she was taken away, and was still doing it when he was restrained in that room with her. They'd tried to encourage each other, and the last image he'd had in his mind before he went under was of her straining to do something painful to the Dai Li.

When they'd woken up, twined together, he'd felt an utter certainty that he wanted to keep that way with her for a long time, and that she was one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen. That compulsion, that he knew now _was_ a compulsion, to work out their story had let his mind go wild with a wish for someone to care about him that he could feel the same way about.

* * *

They both knew that the last year and a half, the period of the actual marriage they'd had, was no lie.

They both shook off the paralysis. Katara crying and flinging herself at Sokka, Aang and Toph. "I'm so glad you're all okay!"

"You're never leaving my sight again!"

"Appa'll be so glad to see you!"

"You were right, boys are stupid!"

Zuko hurtled up the stairs, hugging his uncle back for the first time since he'd returned to the palace. "I'm sorry, Uncle."

"It's all right, Zuko."

Kuei stood to the side, sniffling a little into a handkerchief.

Eventually everyone calmed down. Iroh beamed. "This calls for a celebration!" His smiling face turned crafty. "I shall have to invite Mai and all the other eligible young ladies in the kingdom," he informed Zuko. "I am sure you have not had nearly enough opportunity to spend time with ladies. I need you to start making your own heirs soon, after all."

Sokka was eyeing Katara narrowly. "You've gained some weight," he said. "Well, a few months back home and that'll all come off." When Suki hit him for being an insensitive clod, "What? What did I do?"

Zuko interrupted his uncle. "I'd really rather not see Mai. Or any other girls, Uncle."

Iroh shot him a look, which rapidly turned to worry. "Oh dear. Well, I'm sure that we will find a way to get you heirs, Nephew."

"What?"

"Just tell me you'll find a more suitable . . . companion, than that Jet fellow."

"_What_?" Katara asked, eyes wide. "You and . . . Jet?"

"I . . . no!" Zuko stared around, wishing his uncle had chosen to not leap to conclusions. "I meant, Uncle, I'm already married." He flushed. "While I . . . didn't remember, I was worried you might take exception to her."

Iroh breathed a sigh of relief. "Ah! So where is the young lady then? I can certainly send someone to the village you were found in to collect her."

"She's right here," Zuko said, and leaped down the dais stairs to pull Katara into his side. "We were married a week after we left Ba Sing Se."

Sokka made that sputtery noise again. No one paid him any heed.

Katara pulled his hands to her stomach. "I hadn't told you because I didn't want you to fuss while we were trying to escape, but . . . the heir thing's taken care of too."

He frowned at her for a moment, then he understood. "You're pregnant? We're going to have a baby?"

"Yes!"

Sokka made another noise and turned an odd colour for a human-type-person. They still were ignoring him.

Zuko enthusiastically kissed her. Iroh clapped his hands in glee. "We shall have to arrange for Master Katara to be crowned princess and future consort," he said. He turned to Kuei. "Would you care to stay for the festivities?"

The king of Ba Sing Se smiled and bowed. "I would be delighted."

Suddenly Zuko pulled away. "I get kidnapped by soldiers and you went chasing after me _while you were pregnant_? _What were you thinking_?"

She gaped. "I was thinking I was worried to death about you and that I had to make sure you were okay!"

"What about the baby! Did you even think about him?"

"Him! How do you know it's not a girl?"

"Don't change the subject! You-"

They were interrupted by a loud thud as Sokka passed out.


	7. Epilogue

Title: Yesteryear: The Epilogue

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: Don't own nothin'.

Rating: G

Summary: Is in the title.

Notes: For those who were wondering about Hakoda, here's a very brief follow-up. Now I really am done with this one.

* * *

Hakoda had barely waited for Aang's bison to land before he was vaulting off the animal and running up to the figure in blue on the palace steps. His daughter had been missing for literally more than a year, and he hadn't seen her for two years before that. When Aang had showed up at the village, shouting that Katara had been found and was waiting in the Fire Nation, Hakoda hadn't even questioned why she hadn't returned home with Aang. He was vaguely aware that Aang was shouting after him that there was some more news he needed to know before seeing her, but he didn't care.

He'd actually spent the trip hushing the boy and willing the animal to go faster. He didn't want to hear anything secondhand, he didn't want the reunion marred by anything she'd done or had done to her. He knew his girl, and she'd never have vanished like that without good reason. That was enough for him.

"Katara!" he came up the last few stairs and there she was. She was so beautiful. Just like her mother. He was finally able to wrap his arms around his little girl. For a moment, he held her close. Then suddenly, he became aware of something odd. He pulled back and his eyes were wide. "You're pregnant?" he squawked.

Aang, and Kanna, having come at a much more sedate pace, arrived on the scene. Aang said, rather sourly, "I tried to tell you." He turned to Katara. "I tried to tell him. He kept saying he didn't want to know anything."

Katara sighed. "I don't blame you, Aang. Sokka takes after Dad, you know." Off to the side, Sokka was apparently still doing his impression of the foamy guy on Kyoshi. Suki was making soothing noises at her boyfriend.

"He's still doing that?" Aang asked, staring at his friend.

Zuko shook his head. "Yeah."

It was with a wicked grin that Toph said, "Watch this. Snoozles! Think of all the perks you can get from _Katara being married to Zuko_."

Sokka made a sound rather like, "Hrrrrrk!" and turned an odd shade of magenta.

Hakoda echoed him. "Fffshhk!" Then he turned kind of purply.

Toph, unerringly turned to Hakoda and said, "Huh. Sugar Queen's right. You two really _are_ alike."

Kanna just snorted. "So let's meet your husband," she told Katara, who grinned and shoved Zuko at her grandmother. The elderly woman looked him up and down, then narrowed her eyes. "Hmm," she said. Suddenly Zuko found himself spun around, a generous handful of his rear pinched, and then spun back. "Very nice," she said to her granddaughter. "Strong, pretty but not too pretty, lots of money and fairly smart from what I've been told. Nice tush, too." Zuko's eyes were wide and traumatised as Kanna turned to him and said, "You do look a lot better with hair."

Sokka and Hakoda both made noises again, Sokka switching to purple while Hakoda got splotchy. Zuko turned to Katara and said, "You got it from her, didn't you?"

"Got what?" Katara said with wide, guileless eyes. Then she smirked. "This is just because I know for a fact that Iroh told you I have 'good birthing hips'."

"I have to suffer because my uncle has no sense of shame?"

"Yes."

Kanna and Toph were in a whispered conversation by then. Aang was staring at them both with clear disquiet. Hakoda and Sokka were having some sort of communication in strange burbling and waved hands at each other. Zuko took this in with a sort of horror at the circus his life was about to become. Katara just turned to Suki and they both started some sort of conversation that was half gestures and half arcane feminine oddities.

Hakoda finally took a deep breath and focussed on his daughter. "Will you tell me what I've missed Katara?"

She immediately smiled at him, and said, "Of course Dad." They all headed inside, following father and daughter as they renewed their relationship.

This was really good for the guards, because if they'd had to remain stoic and calm for a moment more, someone would have suffered an internal injury from repressed laughter.


End file.
